Beware of scammers impersonating Antipodes
Antipodes have recently been made aware that companies claiming to represent us are promoting fraudulent investments. One such group is ‘APL Group’ who have used the website: https://www.aplcapitalgroup.com. This website has no association with Antipodes and we take active steps in reporting these impersonators and decommissioning their activities.
Fraud: what to look out for
Trusted brands are often targeted by fraudsters to add the appearance of legitimacy to their crimes. This can take many forms but often fraudsters will impersonate representatives of the company. They will frequently use falsified or copied material (documentation, email addresses, websites) that imitates the branding and intellectual property of the company as a tool for such impersonation.
Scammers may make various claims, such as offering very attractive investment offers or that they are able to recover losses from previous investment frauds including crypto currency scams. Scammers may request an upfront payment from the intended victim. Any such contact is fraudulent. Antipodes will not make unsolicited offers and do not offer any such loss recovery services and none of the described activity is in any way associated to Antipodes or our services.
Common types of fraud
There are many different types of fraud, and new types appearing regularly. Some of the more common types of fraud to be alert for include:
- Impersonation: Scammers are impersonating a legitimate business to entice you to invest with them. They may have sophisticated looking formal offer documents, websites, etc. The people you speak to on the phone can sound professional. Often the scammers will use Google ad word alerts. So for instance, if you google “Best Term Deposit”, they may then contact you to try to sell you their product. Other times they are active in various chat groups or forums.
- Online Fraud: A third party has deceived you into sending money. Some of the frauds we are seeing are emails or mail being intercepted and then the scammers intervening to divert funds to themselves. For instance, on the sale of a property an instruction coming through to send the deposit to a fraudulent third party’s bank account.
Fraud prevention
Here are our best hints and tips:
- Before responding to any suspicious contact from an institution, do your homework. Search for the company in Google, check the address and phone numbers. Ring through to the reception and ask to speak to any person you have been dealing with. Don’t rely on websites, email addresses and phone numbers that have been supplied.
- Do not pay in bitcoin – this is a red flag.
- Before paying any bill or invoice – call your trusted contact or search Google to get the company’s direct phone number and call and confirm the bank account where you intend to send the money.
You can further read some advice provided by the government and experts, some useful links to ASIC Moneysmart include: https://moneysmart.gov.au/ https://moneysmart.gov.au/investment-warnings/crypto-scams
What to do if you think you have been the victim of fraud
Follow the steps outlined here:
https://moneysmart.gov.au/investment-warnings/what-to-do-if-you-ve-been-scammed
- If you have transferred money to scammers or lost money – call your bank immediately – your bank will be your best bet of tracing and getting your money back.
- If you think you have been the successful target, change any passwords or PIN numbers.
Reporting Cyber Crime
Phone 1300 010 311 or email invest@antipodes.com
Report cybercrime to the Australian Government here: https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/report